I’m not jealous of these sad little pageant queens… well, I’m a bit jealous of their fancy hair. Gretchen Ryan does such an amazing job capturing the ridiculous sexualization / adultification (Ok, I know that’s not a real word, but you know what I mean) of these young girls. But what I find even more intriguing is that they’re sad, well, maybe even angry. Usually when you see tiara tots they’re smiling til it hurts, and you can almost hear their mothers saying ‘We only do this because she loves it so much.’ I love that these girls don’t love it… at all.

comments (5)

The one with the missing tooth is particularly creepy don’t you think? Lipstick and your first missing tooth… two things that should probably not go hand in hand.

Ariel /// 02.16.2010 /// 11:00am

I love the little girl in the blue dress. I also like it that they are not smiling because it makes them more intriguing and rather, mysterious. I am an artist, too and my inspirations come from pageant girls, but in the forms of dolls, since they remind me of dolls. This artist is very talented in capturing the overtly mature nature and sexuality that these little girls often portray in pageants.